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Members of the Capital City Writers nailed two successful events last week, a romance author panel at a local bookstore and the second annual Summertime Scrawl. These events inspired both readers and writers, and not a single person barfed from stress or nerves. Hooray!

All seats filled up by start time, and it was standing room only, with an audience that spilled well out of the staging area. There was laughter, a lively Q&A session, and a friendly book signing. My critique group partner Meika Usher gave a sparkling and hilarious introduction to her debut novel, Something So Sweet, which is available as an ebook and also a beautifully designed, adorable paperback. She sold out of every hard copy that she had lugged to the store.

Just a few days later, my critique group partners and I joined forces to hos…

It is already on my own bookshelf (wedged in there by Jane Austen, fourth from the left) because the author personally handed me a copy when I saw him at an event at a local independent bookstore. There, he showed me that he had put my name in the acknowledgements in the back.

THAT'S MEEEEE near the lower right corner!

What fun! I did a beta read of an early draft, and now I am reading the finished work in a handsome hardcover edition.

And I have information from a credible source that a sequel is well underway.

So if historical romance of the queerish kind is your thing, you may want to get in on this series and also check out works by the authors that inspired it: Ellen Kushner, Michelle Martin, Emma Donoghue, Nicola Griffith, Heather Rose Jones, Jane Austen, Alfred Noyes, and songwriter Loreena McKennitt.

There's no place like a bookstore to fall in love with a story. I want books that I can touch and hold, that have weight in my hands and textured covers and pages that smell like reading. There is something romantic about good, old-fashioned print books and also about finding them at a bricks-and-mortar store.

I love all kinds of bookstores--gigantic chain stores with escalators and cafes and abundant armchairs and cozy nooks as well as tiny shops with jingly doors and narrowly spaced, well-curated shelves.

Amazon Prime Day has come and gone, and I bought absolutely nothing. Other people certainly did. My husband has had to clock in to work at 3:45 a.m. every day since the 4th to accommodate literally tons and tons of extra UPS air deliveries.

I like to think that a lot of those packages contain fun beach reads. Getting books in the mail is fun. I can't say I don't enjoy it.

But there's nothing like the experience of browsing a bookstore. If you aren't sure what yo…

It's easy to think of the American Dream as something you could display on a Pinterest board, but I've found that mine is better represented by a certain Wells Fargo TV commercial. (Yes, really.)

I mean, to hell with Wells Fargo. You can get a better deal on a home loan from your local credit union. (That's what I did.) But mad props to the writer of this commercial, a gem within its genre of emotionally impactful, concise storytelling.

Thanks to moments like this sappy ad, I realize how invaluable it is to hold the keys to That
House. Of course, it is a privilege to own the neighborhood "safe space" for children. Staying home and "doing nothing" has transformed into a meaningful service to my community.

And it's also wonderful for me that my daughter (still) loves staying home with Mama, where I know she is safe--and not tearing up someone else's house. It's convenient for me to not have to worry.